Captivate your Audience by Telling a Story in your Advertising

All too often we get wrapped up in trying to make a sale or gain a lead that we do not brush ourselves up on what it actually takes to acquire either. Days of adding just a few video shots or photos of a vehicle with pricing and its features are over, customers now find that a cold form of relinquishing their loyalty.

Instead you need to appeal to the softer side of the consumer and evoke a positive emotion that will appeal to the demographic you are targeting by telling a story.

Ford has certainly been a leader in changing the way they choose to communicate with their customers, not only through the proper use of Social Media, but by turning their advertising into stories rather than spewing cars and trucks at their audience.

Doug the puppet who was the spokes puppet for the 2012 Ford Focus, which either had some dealers thinking it, was either ridiculous or genius.

It was genius, and the reason a puppet was added in, is due to the emotional connection people could have with a witty tantalizing puppet that spent many hours in the Ford Focus, therefore making it a prop people could connect to because of Doug.

This turned into Doug having a following on YouTube, a Facebook page just for Doug and a puppet that became an instant viral sensation. Why? Because he was likable and Ford changed the way the Automotive Industry should relate to their potential customers.

Telling a story is the ideal form of captivating an audience, though you need to strategize and prepare long before you ever take the idea to the public. You don’t need professional equipment; you simply need a creative idea that incorporates your vehicle(s) as a part of the story and throw in features of the vehicle naturally as a part of the storyline.

Many Motor companies will add vehicles as props in television shows and movies, and pay a high price to have their vehicle associated. You can do it too, minus the television show, movie and high cost budget, instead make your own.

Whether you choose to take it to YouTube, add it to print or Media Advertising, the old school way is not going to help you gain new customers, instead gain connections by becoming a story teller and evoke emotion when amplifying a specific vehicle which in turn will do so for your Dealership.

Doug the puppet has retired from Ford, yet Ford keeps pushing the innovative button with more videos on YouTube that tell a story when advertising. Here is just one example of bringing the Ford Escape vehicle into the spotlight.

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